Episode 358 - Log a Nottie

00:00:00[intro theme playing]

Welcome

00:00:24Tony O'Connell: Howdy parkrunners and welcome to episode 358 of the parkrun adventurers podcast, a podcast about life, if your life's all about parkrun. I'm TOC and I'm coming to you from Bunurong Country.

00:00:36Melissa Ellis: And I'm Melissa Ellis and I'm coming to you from Wurundjeri Country.

00:00:41Tony O'Connell: And hello TOC, how are you? I'm awesome Mel, awesome. Just back from a parkrun adventure, a couple of k's around the block to get to it and back. We've had a brilliant time.

00:00:55Melissa Ellis: Just the other side of the state and into the next state. So you travelled west.

00:01:02Tony O'Connell: Yes, Mel, we travelled west. We went to the lands of the Ramindjeri people to Victor Harbor parkrun, um about an 1800 kilometre round trip so quite a lot of hours spent in the car planning future parkrun adventures for us um the parkrun itself now is brilliant it runs along the foreshore pretty windy and it'd be fair to say that it's about 40k winds on Saturday and it's an out and back course and it was a headwind for the whole out and back I don't know how that works, Mel. But we were fortunate. We had 69 finishers, capably organised by seven awesome volunteers. A really great day, but it was very windy, yes it's a bit exposed there isn't it from memory yeah look the the parkrun runs along the foreshore there's no trees between you and the beach so you are right on the foreshore sensational views out towards granite island and um the knob which is a far end of one of the the cliffs so yeah no really really pretty parkrun lots of Norfolk pines along the foreshore um Lots of people out and about, just really pretty parkrun. Almost as pretty as that Dolls Point one, Mel.

00:02:25Melissa Ellis: And did you head there for the V?

00:02:28Tony O'Connell: We did, Mel. Yeah, it's another V into our collection. Victor Harbor, though, has been on my list. I have a list in my phone, like a lot of adventurers. I have about 14 parkruns, I think, that are in there that are just ambition parkruns, ones that I want to get to. Victor Harbour's probably been in that list twice, almost forever for as long as I've been in parkrun fun fact Victor Harbor actually launched about a month before Inverloch did and so when we're looking at setting up Inverloch we actually bounced a little bit of stuff from the current or the the former EDs of Victor Harbor at the time because we're both going through the setup at the same time so there you go we've got a bit of a tie-in with Victor Harbor

00:03:17Melissa Ellis: Actually, I've done Victor Harbor and I did it even before I knew anything about alphabet or touristing. I just was in South Australia and I booked a holiday in Victor Harbor.

00:03:29Tony O'Connell: And, Mel, as you'd remember, this year at New Year's or the parkrun just before New Year's Day, yourself, Jacqui and myself ducked down to Shiraz Trail and then we went to Victor Harbor to spend the day. The place was packed. Well, this weekend it was much less packed.

00:03:49Melissa Ellis: Even on a long – oh, well, it's a long weekend for us, isn't it, in Greater State?

00:03:53Tony O'Connell: Yeah, not for South Australia.

00:03:55Melissa Ellis: No. No.

00:03:56Tony O'Connell: And how about you, Mel? Where did you get up to on parkrun day just finished?

00:04:00Melissa Ellis: Well, I stayed in the Greater State and I took a short drive to Goulburn River Trail parkrun Seymour on the lands of the Taungurung people. Seymour is located in the southern end of the Goulburn Valley, 104 kilometres north of Melbourne, and was a measly one and a half hours drive from home. The town sits alongside the Goulburn River and services the local agricultural industries as well as the nearby Puckapunyal military base. I wasn't meeting anyone at this event, but as is often the case, was pleasantly surprised to discover friendly faces once I arrived. One of which, Super Sally Heppleston, I discovered on the Hume Highway on the way up. Goulburn River Trail is an out-and-back course. We mentioned that last week, and I can confirm that the course does in fact consist of gravel trail with a short boardwalk section. But what I didn't know was that it also runs alongside grapevines, and while mostly flat, it does have some gentle undulations approaching the turnaround. It was pleasant conditions for running with 72 participants showing up for week two, eight first-timers, and 10 recording their second visit. And I knew I must have had adventurers on course when I was cheered on by name during the run. So when I finished, I tracked down my mystery adventurer, who turned out to be Damon Young from Shepparton parkrun. Also adventuring to Seymour was Scott Wilson-Smith, Nicola Wright and Susan Kirk. And Sally, who I mentioned earlier, plus Greg Moore on Timekeeper Duties. Fun fact is that when I was in Seymour with Brendan Peel and Jodie Maisie in July of 22, after doing Puckapunyal parkrun, we drove to the exact location, the Lions Park, and walked the exact course. Musing at how there was a perfect 5K location with parking and toilets as well. Shout out to co-EDs Peter Nunn and Lucy Linton, who I believe had a long slog to get the event off the ground. And right when they were due to launch, the Goulburn River flooded, inundating the course and delaying their launch by another two weeks. It was also great to see Michael McCall from Pucka parkrun out to visit and support the new event, Running for Team Veteran. There certainly was no shortage of familiar faces eager to chat after they crossed the finish. One word of advice though, Tony, it is an event where you need to pack the Aeroguard.

00:06:21Tony O'Connell: Okay, one of those ones where them mozzies lift you off, is it?

00:06:24Melissa Ellis: Yes, I was getting eaten alive, as I was standing around chit-chatting to everybody after the event. So it was a very jovial and happy atmosphere around the finish line. But yes, those mosquitoes.

00:06:38Tony O'Connell: So we'll pack that in the car for about two weeks away when we're headed up to there.

00:06:42Melissa Ellis: Yes, good job. But it was a lovely event.

00:06:46Tony O'Connell: And it's nice to have a new event, Mel, only an hour and a half away from home rather than having to do the awesomely big road trips.

00:06:55Melissa Ellis: I know. I didn't even have to stay overnight anywhere. I just got up early, and it was only half an hour earlier than I would get up for work anyway.

00:07:04Tony O'Connell: Bit of a novelty.

00:07:05Melissa Ellis: No complaints.

00:07:07Tony O'Connell: Excellent.

00:07:08Melissa Ellis: Just a lot of traffic on the Hume, which I wasn't used to. I'm used to driving up on a Friday morning. Right, and having the Hume to myself, but it was a bit busier.

parkrun news bulletin

00:07:19Tony O'Connell: Right. And moving right along now, parkrun News. Mm-hmm. I've got a couple of things I want to raise this week, Mel, just little things that I've seen out in the different adventurer groups online and in different forums. One of them is the Christmas Compendium, a great asset. You can look there, you can see who's running at Christmas, who's running at New Year's Day, whether they're not running so you can change your plans. But I just remind everyone that events have till the 11th of December to declare and there's a lot of things that go into whether an event's going to go ahead. So things like, can they get the volunteers? Do they have the people that want to organise it? Because a lot of people are away at that time of the year. And whether they have approval, a lot of events have to go to their landowner, be it council or parks or whoever, to get approval to run a special day. So it's not just a given that every event's going to happen. And I just encourage people, please don't message the event teams asking you to get in a run. It'll be up. I know we're all anxious. We all want to make our holiday plans. The event that I'm planning on going to hasn't declared yet, and I'd really love to see them up there. But it'll happen in time. Just, yeah, give the events a bit of a break, I guess, Mel, is my little message.

00:08:38Melissa Ellis: That's a very good message, TOC. Thanks for bringing that up. I know the one that I've got in my sights hasn't declared yet either, but I've checked the history. They've done New Year's Day parkrun every year since they launched. So I'm fairly confident, but I also booked my accommodation and I know that I'm within an early drive, you know, a couple of hours, I guess, to most of Adelaide's parkruns. So if the one that I've got in mind doesn't run, then I will have others to choose from.

00:09:17Tony O'Connell: Yeah, and that's probably a good bit of advice, Mel, is to pick one that does give you some options. And that's like any parkrun touristing, you know, on different days, different events will have to cancel for a whole heap of different reasons. And it's always good to have plan B and maybe C. And if you really need it, plan D. You've had some experience there, Tony. Yeah, we've got to plan C before, so, yep. Okay. No, it's just a good thing. Just let the teams have their time. I'm sure most of them are starting to declare now. I know the Christmas compendium certainly got a lot fuller on Saturday afternoon, so a lot of events are starting to infill it. But, yeah, just give the teams a bit of time to work it out.

00:10:06Melissa Ellis: And I'm actually going to be volunteering at Thorndon Juniors on New Year's Eve. I got a message from one of the RDs who knew I was going to be in the area.

00:10:16Tony O'Connell: So is that the reverse of don't message the teams, but get the teams to message you?

00:10:21Melissa Ellis: Yes.

00:10:22Tony O'Connell: Well, that's perfectly acceptable.

00:10:26Melissa Ellis: Yes. Oh, no, I didn't. Yeah. It's juniors. So that will be their regular Sunday.

00:10:31Tony O'Connell: Yeah. And in other news, Mel, parkrun hit 100 million participants this week. Did they? That's... An incredible figure when you think about it. 100 million across the world. 100 million across the world. So that's participation. So that includes volunteering, juniors and the 5K events. But when you think that's 100 million people that have got out and done something on a Saturday or a Sunday, it's a staggering number.

00:11:04Melissa Ellis: The GPs will be happy about that.

00:11:07Tony O'Connell: Yes, yes, especially the ones that prescribe parkrun. And we're also, you know, you look at your own barcode, and I know my barcode's a six-figure digit, but parkrun is so close to hitting barcode 9 million.

00:11:26Melissa Ellis: That's been in the socials a bit this last week, hasn't it?

00:11:29Tony O'Connell: It has. It was sort of envisaged that we might have hit it on the weekend, but I know there's still 1,200 roughly to go before they hit that point. So who's going to be the lucky holder of a barcode with a hell of a lot of zeros?

00:11:44Melissa Ellis: It would be easy to remember.

00:11:46Tony O'Connell: It would be, yeah.

00:11:48Melissa Ellis: Although I do have mine memorised.

00:11:51Tony O'Connell: Yes, for those of us that have to enter it to get into processing and things, it becomes very ingrained.

00:11:58Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that's true. And what else, Tony? The storms. They're still having problems in the UK with these storms.

00:12:05Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I... I heard a couple of events were cancelling now, and I was just having a look at the UK cancellations, and it must have been an incredible storm. There was more than 100 of the 5K events and over 50 of the junior events cancelled on the weekend. And so there were whole areas that didn't have parkruns, which I imagine would have resulted in a bit of a backlog of people at the events that did get up and running.

00:12:30Melissa Ellis: How many events do they have in the UK now? Have they got 900 or...

00:12:35Tony O'Connell: I think it's about 600, Mel.

00:12:38Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. Wow, I was off. Oh, I'm probably thinking of the juniors and the 5K events.

00:12:45Tony O'Connell: If you include juniors, you're very close.

00:12:49Melissa Ellis: No, I was just thinking 100 plus, like that's... roughly 10% of their events?

00:12:55Tony O'Connell: It's a fairly big proportion. And, yeah, no, I feel sorry for the people. I know one of the events that we ran when we were over in Europe, they put up some pictures on the weekend. It was one that we ran in Oslo. And we ran it on a brilliant sunny day. We wore T-shirts for the whole day. It was gorgeous. And they put up a picture, and it's just this ice, and it's almost snowing, and it looked freezing.

00:13:23Melissa Ellis: Yeah.

00:13:24Tony O'Connell: So, yeah, things change very quickly over in Europe. They do. As they do in Australia. We had a couple of events that didn't go ahead because of bushfires and smoke in the air. So, yeah.

00:13:35Melissa Ellis: Oh, true. Was that in Queensland?

00:13:38Tony O'Connell: Yes, up that way. Yeah. And in other news, Mel, as has been mentioned before, I've been logging notties nearly every day for, I don't know, it feels like forever. Last week in Australia, the numbers of notties were down to 89 people that logged a nottie, which is a fairly big drop from the week before, which is about 120 people. There's 1,086 in the world that are still logging a nottie every week. And so I'd like to encourage our listeners parkrun adventurers out there to jump on board and log at least one nottie for the week and let's see if we can cause a bit of a spike in the global numbers for the week so that's that's my bit of a challenge to all our adventurers out there go into your parkrun profile when you get your results go into the notties and log a nottie for the week and let's keep it going

00:14:31Melissa Ellis: Can you remind me after we finish recording? Because I just happened to do a 5k walk today before we started recording. So I can do that.

00:14:39Tony O'Connell: I most certainly can. Done. And Mel, the last one I've got on the news. Did you see the parkrun rugs that came out for sale last week?

00:14:50Melissa Ellis: I did, but I can't afford, I haven't got anything to sell so that I can buy one.

00:14:55Tony O'Connell: Yeah, they were about $150. Yeah. Very limited edition. There was only 240 of them, I think, released, and they all sold out on the day that they were released. So there's a lot of people out there that love picnics at parkrun.

00:15:11Melissa Ellis: Wow. It is a nice-looking blanket.

00:15:15Tony O'Connell: It is a lovely-looking blanket, and I'm sure a few of our parkrunners will be out there. I know that there's somebody already planning to open a bottle of wine on one, not pointing at South Australia. Sure. Bubbly wine near a golf course.

00:15:32Melissa Ellis: Don't know who that could be. But is it a rubber-backed one? Because, like, seriously, it must be a really good picnic rug. And I assume there's postage on top of that price.

00:15:44Tony O'Connell: I don't know, Mel. I didn't get that far into it. Not a picnic rug type guy, so yeah.

00:15:51Melissa Ellis: You don't sit still long enough to have a picnic, Tony.

00:15:55Tony O'Connell: No, it could be an aid station blanket or I missed an opportunity.

00:15:59Melissa Ellis: Yeah. Warm you up after a wet blustery run or something like that or one of those ones where you go swimming through the trail and it's flooded.

00:16:10Tony O'Connell: Winter course.

00:16:11Melissa Ellis: Yeah. But anyway, okay, well, thanks for bringing all that news. You've done lots of homework. Really appreciate that.

00:16:20Tony O'Connell: Just some interesting facts and figures from out in the parkrun world.

Emails

00:16:25Melissa Ellis: Now, we do have an email this week.

00:16:28Tony O'Connell: You've got mail.

00:16:30Melissa Ellis: And it comes to us from Brett Bailey. And Brett is replying to our little discussion last week's episode about nippers. And he said, Hi, team. Sorry for the late email following last week's pod. I hope I haven't missed the cutoff for this week. It was great to hear you enjoy your first taste of nippers recently, Mel. It will probably come as no surprise that the Baileys have had a long involvement with the junior surf program in New Zealand. Yes, it's just not an Aussie thing. Most of the 70 plus New Zealand clubs run nippers over here each summer. Both Bec and Nathan went right through the system and eventually qualified as lifeguards. Bec coached in New Zealand and Nathan is still coaching at our club. Tanya and I were both junior surf coordinators for our club and we still help out coaching when required. We regularly get over 100 eager children attending each Saturday. It's great to develop water safety awareness and many carry on to compete in surf sports and become surf and pool lifeguards. Love your work, Brett Bailey. So, Tony, I think you were also saying that Jacqui has been involved in Nippers. Yes.

00:17:42Tony O'Connell: Yeah, Jacqui actually helped run the Cape Paterson Surf Lifesaving Club Nippers many years ago. So, yeah, we've had a little bit to do with nippers through our lifesaving. Obviously, the Baileys are very committed to their lifesaving as well and still are.

00:17:57Melissa Ellis: And you still are a lifeguard, is that right?

00:18:00Tony O'Connell: Yeah, I still patrol. I still do my hours each year on patrol. I still love the camaraderie amongst the Lifesaving Club. Cape Paterson's very fortunate. We've got a new Lifesaving Club down there with quite a nice facility and premises. So, yeah, no, we've come a long way.

00:18:16Melissa Ellis: So was I correct in saying that our Lifesaving Clubs with nippers are sort of more on the coastal areas and not so much within the bay area?

00:18:29Tony O'Connell: You would have been correct in saying that probably 10 years ago, Mel, but now that Lifesaving Australia have conglomerated with Surf Lifesaving Australia and Royal Lifesaving, it's all one organisation now. So we have a lot of nippers programs run around the bays. And in fact, I think you may find that some places along the river, like Mildura, may even run nippers programs.

00:18:52[crosstalk]

00:18:52Melissa Ellis: Oh, okay. Yeah. But it's probably come into a water awareness, water safety, more of a push.

00:18:59Tony O'Connell: Very much so. And the programs are designed around educating kids into feeling confident in the water and giving them some experience in the water, as well as some of the other competition and minor first aid and just teaching kids life skills. Very good. As the kids grow up through the life-saving program, obviously they learn a little bit more each year and eventually the idea is that they flow over into patrolling life-saving members and they come in with a great deal of experience if they've gone through the nippers program.

00:19:34Melissa Ellis: And I assume they would also have some very good first aid skills that would accompany that type of a program like resuscitation? Yes.

00:19:43Tony O'Connell: Yeah, look, they have a little bit, but the kids don't get too far into resuscitation. It's more minor first aid. But you tend to find they come in with awareness of things like rips and currents and that sort of thing that a lot of kids their age would have absolutely no idea about. So they're a lot more competent and confident in the water.

00:20:02Melissa Ellis: Yeah, rips are a real big issue in Australian waters, aren't they?

00:20:06Tony O'Connell: They are, yes. Yep.

Dazza's

00:20:09Melissa Ellis: Okay, well, Tony, you'll be glad to know we're bringing Dazza's back this week. And this week, Dazza has said, Dazza is serving up mega loaded fries, sized helpings of parkrun fun today. Come on in and place your order.

00:20:25Tony O'Connell: And Mel, some of our 174 comments this week, and the first ones come from Brett Bailey. Brett's been very active on the social media this week. He has. Brett's comment is, hmm, loaded fries, bacon, cheese, hungry now. I can respond to that, Brett. 128 parkrunners at Pegasus today in fine, clear conditions. Ran with Brunner and then celebrated with Nathan as he completed 100 parkruns today. Well done, Nathan. Thanks for the cake, Tanya. And the pick was of Nathan and Brett with Brunner in front of the parkrun flag. And I could say that Tanya posted a very similar one congratulating Nathan as well. So well done, Nathan. Great to see you get to the 100.

00:21:08Melissa Ellis: Excellent. The fourth Bailey shot. Now, we also heard from Andrew Turner, and he said stayed home to celebrate my 250th at Maribyrnong, and he shared a photo of himself with a 250 parkrun sign. Congratulations, Andrew.

00:21:26Tony O'Connell: Next, we heard from Helen Patricia. Yay, got my East. Finally completed the Compass Challenge at East Coast Park in Singapore. It was hot and humid, but super friendly. And Helen posted a pic with Helen and Andy in front of the teardrop flags at Singapore at East Coast parkruns.

00:21:43Melissa Ellis: And we heard from M. Nico, RD at Kirra parkrun today, Barcode Scanner at Bellevue Park Junior parkrun tomorrow. Hashtag multi-talented. And M shared a pic of M with three of her wonderful volunteer crew at Kirra.

00:22:00Tony O'Connell: Next, we heard from Helen Davis. A Frond and parkrun World Tourist meet up today in Queensland at Yowie parkrun. And the pic was a collage of four photos, and one of them included Cass Castleton, who this week completed his seventh alphabet at Yowie. And I believe Cass is going on next week to New Zealand, to Queenstown, to finish his eighth alphabet.

00:22:23Melissa Ellis: Wow. How many are actually possible or do you only, like, is it classed as completing it if you've done all of the available letters?

00:22:33Tony O'Connell: No, I think you have to do the 25 that are available in multiples of 25 to get them. So when you run out of Zs, I don't think you can claim an alphabet without having the extra Z. Oh, okay. It's only the X that's not there. Okay.

00:22:50Melissa Ellis: All right. So that means that there's – how many is possible?

00:22:55Tony O'Connell: I don't know. I should have done some homework on that.

00:23:00Melissa Ellis: Next time.

00:23:01Tony O'Connell: Next time.

00:23:02Melissa Ellis: Okay, we also heard from Tim Robbins. Large flat Y and cupcake please, Dazza, as I've driven 11 hours and have two left. And he had the sleepy face emoji with that and shared a picture of himself with the Hamilton Lake selfie frame. So, yes, Tim's over in New Zealand and I guess he was taking a long road trip to pick up another new event.

00:23:30Tony O'Connell: Next, we heard from Catherine Pirotta. Also, first time today, and I should reference the also bit. Catherine actually had two comments in Dazza's this week, so I've selected the second one. Also, first time today to wear the parkrun adventurers T-shirt and the theme is wings for their birthday. So instead, I'm a plane with a plane emoji. Lol, laughy face. At East Richmond parkrun. And the picture was Catherine zooming in her adventurers top and she looks fantastic in the blue. Those tops really stand out, Mel. I love seeing them out in the wild.

00:24:02Melissa Ellis: Yes. I'm very happy with our tops. Although I left my jacket on, so mine didn't really get seen this week.

00:24:10Unidentified speaker: Oh.

00:24:11Tony O'Connell: I was just a bit of a wuss and didn't strip off this week.

00:24:14Melissa Ellis: Now, we also heard from Jane Hassel. Yes, I think that's how you say it. Celebrating my 250th Lochiel parkrun. So is that 250 at Lochiel or 250 Milestone?

00:24:32Tony O'Connell: I think it was Jane's 250 milestone. I think it might have been celebrated at Lochiel. That's the way I read it when I looked at it anyway.

00:24:36[crosstalk]

00:24:39Melissa Ellis: That makes sense. And Jane shared a photo of herself in multiple colours, multi-colour, with a cake and tutu to celebrate. So congratulations, Jane.

00:24:51Tony O'Connell: And lastly, we heard from Natalie Soper. Natalie was over in Poland, and her comment is, lovely run at Zamek w Malborku. I'm probably not going to get into Poland with reading it out like that, parkrun in Poland. Turns out you can come last at parkrun with a laughy face emoji. They just asked me if I wanted to be tail walk when I finished in last position. Very happy with that as I picked up a volunteer and a relatively speedy 32.11 finish as I didn't want to lose sight of the person in front of me. Oh, no. And there's actually a pretty cool picture. Natalie's out in front of a castle at Zamek w Malborku. Yeah, great picture.

00:25:37Melissa Ellis: Oh, wow. Fancy being asked to be Tail Walker as you cross the line.

00:25:43Unidentified speaker: Yeah.

00:25:45Melissa Ellis: I don't know how parkrun would feel about that.

00:25:50Tony O'Connell: Pre-prepared volunteer positions.

the Obi Award — Jane Hassel

00:25:55Melissa Ellis: Well, would you like to announce an Obi, Tony?

00:26:00[background music]

00:26:00Tony O'Connell: I have the winner here, and the winner this week is... Jane Hassel. Jane Hassel. I love the tutus. Lots of colour in front of that water tank at Lochiel. The mothership has come through again. Well done, Jane.

00:26:24Melissa Ellis: Hooray. Yes, well done. But moving on. We've been through it this week, Tony.

00:26:31Tony O'Connell: We are getting through it now.

Consolidated Club Report

00:26:34Melissa Ellis: I've got a Consolidated Club report for you. Now, the adventurers Consolidated Club report for Saturday, the 4th of November, 2023, of a total of 496 members. We're getting so close.

00:26:49Tony O'Connell: Just four to go now, 500.

00:26:51Melissa Ellis: Four to go. Yeah, it wasn't your week. Sorry. Anyway, 378 took part on this date in nine countries across 187 locations. In the UK, there were adventures at 24 events. There were adventures at three in South Africa and America, two in Singapore, one in the Netherlands, Norway and Poland. That would have been Natalie. Locally, we had adventures at 36 events in New South Wales, 35 events in Queensland, 34 in Victoria. 15 in South Australia, 12 in WA, 8 on the North Island, 6 in the ACT. Tassie had 3. South Island had 2 and 1 in the Northern Territory.

the Frond — Passionistas at Shellharbour (largest local frond, nine members)

00:27:44Tony O'Connell: Now, Largest Frond, do you want to read those, TOC? Yes. International email. Our Largest Frond was at East Coast Park where we had four people with Helen and Andy Rudder, who we spoke about before, Brian Mankus and Sarah Langley. Sarah Langley from Shepparton. Ah.

00:28:07Unidentified speaker: Hmm.

00:28:07Tony O'Connell: Greater State travelling again.

00:28:09Unidentified speaker: Hmm.

00:28:10Tony O'Connell: And our largest frond this week locally, we had a frond of nine Passionistas at Shellharbour and we had eight at Wyndham Vale, which included Andrew and James Reynolds, Renee Jackson, Daryl, John and Vicky Smith, Kevin Green and Donna Markwick.

00:28:28Melissa Ellis: Now, adventurer milestones. There were no adventurer PBs this week, my sources tell me, but milestones we did have. Now, these... First one was actually mentioned in Dazza's, I believe. Andrew Turner, 1195873, ran his 250th. Renee Jackson, 2251216, ran her 250th. And M Strong, 248815, ran their 50th milestone. So congratulations to all three of those.

00:29:05Tony O'Connell: Yeah, congratulations. And M Strong, that's a very low number to be running a 50th. So hopefully they've got back into their parkruns. And remember, Mel, if you'd like to be tracked on the achievements, you can add the Adventurers Club as one of your five affiliations on the parkrun profile. It's really simple to add it in. And yeah, you can have five different clubs. So jump on board and get the adventurers as one of your clubs.

00:29:33Melissa Ellis: Yes, and you could be our 500th person, but we won't know who it is. No. And we don't have prizes because we don't have money.

00:29:44Tony O'Connell: There's no milestone T-shirt for that?

00:29:46Melissa Ellis: No.

00:29:46[crosstalk]

00:29:46Tony O'Connell: No. There's just the... The honour and glory. Yeah, the glory. Let's go with that.

Launches and anniversaries"Where is the cake?"

00:29:52Tony O'Connell: But, Tony, there were some launches. We had a couple of launches this week, Mel, and we've got one that we need to cover from last week. So taking off for the first one, we had one in Ireland at Fenit Greenway. It's on the west coast of Ireland. They had 206 finishers and 21 volunteers. The Fenit parkrun, Mel, is a double out-and-back course on the Fenit Greenway with a slight incline starting at the old bridge in the Fenit Beach car park, extending 1.8 kilometres towards Tralee. doubling back for a 700-metre section and returning to the start area. Beautiful views of the Tralee Bay, Barrow Harbour and the Slieve Mish Mountains.

00:30:36Melissa Ellis: Wow, that was a mouthful. Good work.

00:30:39Tony O'Connell: Good job, TOC.

00:30:42Melissa Ellis: Oh, I get week two with this one. Okay. So this is the one that we didn't know about last week. So it actually ran its week two. Oosterplas in Netherlands launched with 91 finishers and 13 volunteers. Now this course is two laps around the lake on a mixture of asphalt and paving stones. And it says the start and finish area 300 metres apart and the start is close to the parking area.

00:31:11Tony O'Connell: And it's interesting, Mel, when this one came up, I thought, where on earth is that? So I went and had a look. And Jack and I, on our European holiday, we actually changed from a train to a bus very close to where this parkrun is. So we almost could have got out and had a run around the lap, of course.

00:31:27Melissa Ellis: Done a nottie.

00:31:28Tony O'Connell: Yeah. But we didn't know about it.

00:31:30Melissa Ellis: Did I say it right?

00:31:32Tony O'Connell: I think so. And our next one, Mel... Fig Tree parkrun in South Africa, which is just west of Durban near the Thousand Hills parkrun, which sounds like it goes up and down. And from the pitch that we've seen, it does go up a little bit. Johan sent us a photo through. For those playing at home in South Africa, the Fig Tree parkrun is probably more accurately pronounced as Faya Buem parkrun. They had 344 finishers, 18 volunteers. It's a single lap trail course. And Mel, the only way I could describe this is it looks like Mr. Squiggle sneezed while he was drawing a map. There's lines that go everywhere. Yeah. It looks like an amazingly difficult course to follow. I'm sure it's not, but it has more lines on it than any parkrun I've seen.

00:32:29Melissa Ellis: So I don't think our international listeners will get the Mr Squiggle reference, and maybe some of our younger listeners, Tony, won't get the Mr Squiggle reference.

00:32:39Tony O'Connell: Maybe anyone younger than 40 won't get that. Mr. Squiggle was a TV character that used to draw with a pencil stuck on his nose, or his nose was actually a pencil, and he used to squiggle lines everywhere. Yeah, so the course, I encourage people to go and have a look at Fig Tree parkrun in South Africa. Have a look at the course map. It looks great fun. It looks like an orienteering-type course. Yeah.

00:33:06Melissa Ellis: Maybe it's like that, what's the UK one that goes in the spiral? What's that called? Is that Curly Whirly?

00:33:12Tony O'Connell: Oh, the Curly Whirly.

00:33:13Melissa Ellis: Yeah, maybe it's like Mr Squiggle sneezed drawing the Curly Whirly map.

00:33:19Unidentified speaker: Hmm.

00:33:20Melissa Ellis: Well, very good.

00:33:21Tony O'Connell: But they had obviously quite a large turnout. And I've got to thank the South African Connection of Janet for that pronunciation earlier. I had no idea. So thank you, Janet.

00:33:34Melissa Ellis: Oh, look at you doing more research.

00:33:37Tony O'Connell: Thank you, Janet.

00:33:40Melissa Ellis: So did you read that little description? Because it says in its course description that it includes a stream crossing. What?

00:33:51Tony O'Connell: That's almost like Nambour. We have a stream at Nambour.

00:33:54Melissa Ellis: Yeah, but when they have the stream, don't they use the B course and turn around at the stream?

00:33:58Tony O'Connell: They don't really... I don't know. Get your feet wet, Mel. I can't think of the name of the event in the UK this weekend. They showed a video and there's about 200 metres of course about ankle deep in water and they have... Like 500 people just run straight through it and the splashes are just amazing. It's the sort of course that takes me back to the inner childhood and I just want to run that course just a splash. The actual description of the Fig Tree parkrun course is a single lap on trail through a mixture of forests and meadows on a farm, including a stream crossing. The start and finish are close to the main car park and clean ablutions.

Sign-off

00:34:39Melissa Ellis: Oh, that's important. So, Mel, planning for next Saturday already. Where are you at? Oh. Oh, well, um... don't know so I'm not going anywhere so I know I know right don't die shock I don't have an adventure planned I'm not leaving the state and I actually I don't know I don't know where to go so I'm going to do obviously return to a parkrun I've previously done I might look at I might look at my p index and see what I can work on in that respect a bit of long-range planning for p Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think my p-index is seven.

00:35:19Tony O'Connell: You're a long way advanced on mine. I think mine's four or five.

00:35:23Melissa Ellis: So I can work on that. It'll just give me something to just focus. I don't know. If people would like to invite me to their parkrun, is there a party anywhere? I don't know. Can't say if there's cake. I don't eat cake. If anybody wants to make me some low-carb cupcakes...

00:35:42Tony O'Connell: Oh, you can get Bec to come and she can make some of those cakes that she made for Batemans Bay. They were so good.

00:35:48Melissa Ellis: Maybe I need the recipe. Maybe I'll turn up and entice people with my own cakes.

00:35:53Tony O'Connell: That'll do it.

00:35:54Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that'll do it. So, yeah, I don't know. So I know that's not very helpful. Maybe if I decide I can put it in the Friday Post and let people know where I'm going if anybody cares. Maybe they don't. Maybe I'll go to Albert Park and blend in with the millions, which reminds me, oh, you know what? We didn't mention this, but I saw Sarah Jefferson over there, Lake Claremont, I think it was. She caught up with Lisa Miller. Yeah.

00:36:20Tony O'Connell: Oh, that'd be so cool. I can remember when I interviewed Lisa for the podcast. Just the most amazing public person. I loved that interview.

00:36:31Melissa Ellis: So you know what I think Sarah did? She's a bit cheeky. I think she saw on social media that Lisa Miller was in WA. So she actually put a call out to say, see you at Lake Claremont parkrun. And Lisa Miller replied and said yes. Sure. And then turned up. I love it.

00:36:52Tony O'Connell: Oh, well, no. Lisa is a great parkrun person. She loves a parkrun. She loves volunteering. So, yeah, no, great parkrun person.

00:37:00Melissa Ellis: Yeah. So, anyway, I just threw that in. Sorry. But what about you, TOC? Where are you going to be on the weekend?

00:37:06Tony O'Connell: Well, the funny thing is I have no idea either. Middle son Daniel's up to his 49th different event. So I think he's coming home for the weekend. So we'll probably make the trip across into the greatest bit of the greatest state, being Gippsland. And we'll probably do one of the events over in the Latrobe Valley, I think, to get Danny's 49th event.

00:37:31Melissa Ellis: How far is Dan off becoming a Gippslander?

00:37:34Tony O'Connell: Oh, he's still got six or seven, I think.

00:37:37Melissa Ellis: Really? Even with mum and dad living down that way?

00:37:40Tony O'Connell: Yeah, he's got a lot more because he lives around the Brunswick area. He's got a lot more around the Melbourne area already done. But Dan's become the little tourist and, yeah, we like to encourage that along.

00:37:51Melissa Ellis: How many events now in Gippsland region for that challenge?

00:37:55Tony O'Connell: 13. Nice. And it'd be lovely to have a 14th one day. Where's there a hole? In Far East Gippsland and then the area down around Foster and Yarram down through that area. We came very close to an event there pre-COVID. So, yeah, no, we've got a couple of little gaps there where we could fit another parkrun in quite happily.

00:38:16Melissa Ellis: Yanakie. You need one at Yanakie. There's another one.

00:38:19Tony O'Connell: Yanakie or Yarram? Yannicky. We need one at Mallacoota.

00:38:24Melissa Ellis: Oh, yeah.

00:38:25Tony O'Connell: That's a road trip for everyone.

00:38:27Melissa Ellis: Well, I think we've tried to pad this out as long as we possibly can. Another short one this week. You never can tell when you're going to get roving reports.

00:38:36Tony O'Connell: No, it's a good one. I was going to record a roving report, Mel, on the weekend, but the 45k an hour winds at the finish line and no shelter meant that we had absolutely no hope of hearing anything.

00:38:48Melissa Ellis: Yeah, that does play a part, I will admit. But never mind. And we do love, of course, our contributions from all our Channel 5 News crew and appreciate them when we do get them. It's just we never know when we're going to get them ahead of time. But as always, you can contact us via parkrun adventurers on Facebook or our email, which is parkrunadventurers at gmail.com. That's it for another week. Thanks for joining me, TOC. We'll see you all next week for more adventures.

00:39:10[outro theme playing]

00:40:12Unidentified speaker: Bye.